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Rothko Fetches $73 Million

Record price for seminal modern work marks trend in art purchases

By Sarah Levy,  Newser User

Posted May 16, 2007 8:18 AM CDT
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(Newser) – Sotheby’s sold a Mark Rothko painting last night for $72.84 million, a record price for a piece of art created after World War II and a signal of a new boom in the market. Seller David Rockefeller bought the 7-foot-tall "White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender)," an early example of the painter's signature blocks of color, for $8,500 in 1960.

“There has been a seismic shift in people wanting to buy masterpieces,” said the auctioneer, who attributes the surge in modern art sales to globalization. A sale at Christie’s tonight is expected to bring in a record $300 million with works by Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Damien Hirst. "The whole marketplace is crazy," one gallery owner told Bloomberg.

This image provided by Sotheby's New York shows Mark Rothko's 1950 White Center oil on canvas, the painting sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for $72.8 million at Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening on Tuesday evening May 15, 2007, in New York. (AP Photo/Sotheby's New York)
This image provided by Sotheby's New York shows Mark Rothko's 1950 "White Center" oil on canvas, the painting sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for $72.8 million at Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening...   (Associated Press)
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art market • contemporary art • globalization • art • Andy Warhol • Sotheby's • Christie's • Damien Hirst • painting • Mark Rothko • Jasper Johns

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